Page 23 of Her Second Chance Cowboy

“You did the right thing,” Colin reassured her, putting an arm around her and allowing her to lean in against him. “It was badass,” he said against the top of her head.

She hummed happily. “Badass,” she said, testing the word. “I like that. Nancy Sharp, badass event planner.”

Colin laughed and let her go. He was proud of her—and not just because he now had her all to himself. Clearly, she wasn’t happy with her work situation. Her boss seemed like a real piece of work. But yesterday, planting rosebushes with him, Colin had seen her at peace. That dreaded thread of hope in his head whispered that maybe, just maybe, she might decide to stay. Maybe, just maybe, she’d had enough of her city life, and she could be happy and fulfilled here. “You’re an amazing event planner,” he told her and delighted in the flush that pinked her cheeks. “You deserve to be treated with some respect.” She craned her neck so that she was able to look up at him. “We should celebrate,” he said.

She quirked an eyebrow in question. “Celebrate what?”

“Standing up to your boss,” he said. “I want to take you to dinner.”

“Like a date?” She said it teasingly, but that was exactly what he wanted and told her so. She seemed surprised but pleased that he asked. “I’d love that,” she said.

“Good,” he said. “But we have to plan Nick’s bachelor party first. If it’s awful, he’ll never let me live it down.”

Her dark eyes twinkled with mirth. “Can’t have that, can we?”

Colin shook his head “No, we cannot, so come on, badass event planner, and help me.”

FIFTEEN

Nancy spent the next few hours in a happy haze. She helped Colin solidify plans for the bachelor party and actually got the chance to enjoy her time off now that her work phone was off and stuffed in a bag in her room. Once morning gave way to afternoon, Nancy left to meet Evie and the bridesmaids at the salon to try out the hairstyle that they’d chosen for the wedding. She was halfway there when she decided that she would go buy a dress for the evening afterward. Something nice and new that she could surprise Colin with.

It wasn’t until she walked in, breathing that smell that was distinctly hair salon, that she remembered the disaster atop her head. Despite the care Colin had taken with conditioning it, her hair hadn’t recovered from everything she’d put it through the previous day. Currently, it was a mess of frizzy curls. “Oh my God, what happened to you?” Ericka called out when she saw her. The other women (minus Evie, who was in the back room getting supplies) turned, and they all laughed, but it wasn’t mean-spirited. Hair disasters happened; they’d all had their fair share.

“Bad experience with some tape-in extensions from the salon in the next town over,” she said. “I wanted to surprise y’all, but they about melted my scalp off.”

Cady sucked her teeth, and Lila winced. “That’s exactly why I only trust Evie with my hair,” Lila told them. “I got my hair bleached when I was out of town visiting my college roommate once, and it came out in clumps for days after.”

“That can happen in good salons too,” Evie said, coming out of the backroom, clearly only hearing what Lila said. “You shouldn’t judge the salon too harshly, especially since it was a stylist who wasn’t used to working with your hair.” She was looking at something on her phone, but when she looked up, her eyes found Nancy. She stared at her, gaping slightly. “Holy God, what did you do?”

Nancy explained the situation, and by the end of it, all of the women were laughing. “Can you help?”

Evie scoffed in mock hurt. “Of course I can help,” she said. “I’m hurt you didn’t come here first.”

“It was meant to be a surprise,” Nancy insisted.

Cady patted her shoulder and shooed her toward Evie’s chair. “You first,” she said. Ericka and Lila nodded in agreement. Nancy sat in Evie’s chair and waited while Evie grabbed some extensions that matched her hair color. These extensions had the same procedure as the others, but they were a different brand that boasted a “sensitive” formula that Evie swore was good quality.

Before she put in the extensions, she soothed Nancy’s scalp and frizzy hair with a deep conditioning treatment that felt so good, Nancy nearly melted into the chair. When the treatment was done and Nancy’s hair looked normal again, Evie started sandwiching wefts of hair in between layers of her own hair. It was the same process that the other stylist used, but there was no tingling or agonizing burn. When she realized that this wasn’t going to hurt, she relaxed. “You know I love the short hair,” Evie said, “but what made you cut your hair?” She looked to the waiting bridesmaids. “Y’all remember how pretty her hair used to be?”

Cady nodded. “I was always jealous,” she admitted with a little shrug.

Nancy laughed. “Honestly?” she asked. “I had a bad day at work last summer and when I went out for lunch, I got ridiculously hot, so I walked into a salon and asked them to buzz it off. I nearly went fully bald, but the stylist talked me out of it.”

“Thank God,” Ericka said. They all looked at her, and she shrugged. “There are some women who can rock a bald head,” she explained, “but with your eyes, you would look like an alien.”

Nancy was a little offended, but she did see Ericka’s point. She had large, brown eyes, and she realized her hair balanced them out on her face. The extensions took longer because of the chatting, and while Nancy enjoyed herself, she found herself checking the clock on her phone over and over. Her date with Colin was later, and she wanted to make sure she’d have enough time to go shopping for a new dress. “You have somewhere to be?” Evie asked, and Nancy met her best friend’s gaze in the mirror. She was grinning, and Nancy knew she was caught.

“I’m hoping to have enough time to go buy a new dress for tonight,” she said, and that drew the attention of the bridesmaids.

Ericka waggled her eyebrows at her. “Tonight, huh? Got a hot date?”

“Is it Colin?” Lila asked.

Nancy tried to dodge the question, but the way she was blushing just made them crowd around even more, refusing to let the question drop. “Yes,” she said after a moment. “Colin asked me to dinner.”

The women were genuinely excited. “I’ll come with you,” Lila offered, “to help you pick out a dress.” Nancy was touched. It had been a long time since she’d had girlfriends like this—the kind to go and shop for a date that wasn’t theirs.

“Thank you,” Nancy said. Once Lila stated that she’d join her, all of the women decided they wanted to come, so once Evie was finished with her extensions, she curled them a bit and declared they would revisit the hair trial later. “What? No,” Nancy tried to argue. “We came to test—”

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